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MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



BY 



Hon. J. SLOAT FASSETT 



ON THE 



BATTLEFIELD 
OF GETTYSBURG 



MAY 30, 1910. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



BY 



Hon. J. SLOAT FASSETT 



ON THE 



BATTLEFIELD 
OF GETTYSBURG 



MAY 30, 1910. 



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Memorial Address 

T^oday is a day of remembrance all over 
tbis broad land. Thousands of Americans 
are g^atbering" tog'etber to sboAV tbeir love 
and bonor for tbeir soldier dead. Tbey 
are recalling^ tbe stirring events tliat led 
us to a deadly war fifty years ago. Tbere 
rises in retrospect a clearer view of tbe 
true meaning" of tbe conflicts of tbose days 
tlian was possible for us to bave at tbe 
moment tbey occurred. Tbe color of pas- 
sion and prejudice bas faded; tbe bitter- 
ness of personal bias bas sweetened; minds 
inflamed witli tbe wratb wbicb moved 
men to slaug-bter bave recovered tbeir 
normal calm and judg-ment. Tbe storm 
was terrific. Tbe tempest was sublime. 
Tbe destruction Avas appalling. Tbe suf- 
fering was vmspeakable. But tbese tilings 
passed avray and now t^ bat w as tben seen 
but dimly, being obscured by tbe very 
violence of contest, stands revealed in all 
its beautiful proportions. A new genera- 
tion may now^ join witb tbe survivors of 



4 

the older days in a saner and a truer 
vleAv of what the strug-g-le meant. These 
days of remembrance are fruitful in les- 
sons of love of country and of devotion to 
the common g-ood. Nothings interests 
Americans more than the welfare of 
America, and nothing* concerns us more 
intimately than the means Avhereby that 
Avelfare may be preserved. As we gather 
here to-day surrounded on every hand by 
the mute witnesses of a mighty contest 
Avaged here nearly half a century ago; as 
imagination endeavors to reconstruct the 
sublime spectacle of the three days' fight 
of Gettysburg, I seem to hear from out 
the rushing squadrons, the shouts and 
shrieks of men, the rattle of musketry 
and the thundering reverberations of the 
iron-throated guns, the words spoken to 
Moses from the burning bush: "Put off 
now thy shoes from off thy feet for the 
place whereon thou standeth is holy 
ground," for this, too, is holy ground, con- 



5 

secrated to liberty and union, and hal- 
lowed by tlie martyrs for truth's sake 
Tvho sleep beneath its sod. 

We are here as loyal citizens of the 
United States to mourn and praise our 
dead. We are here to celebrate the spirit 
of liberty and those who fought for it; to 
honor the spirit of equality and those who 
died for it; to dedicate ourselves anew to 
the spirit of the Union and to those who 
saved it; to reverence the spirit of obe- 
dience to duty and those who heeded it. 
We are standing" on one of the mountain 
tops of history and have come to get a 
clearer view of what has gone before, and 
to learn how best to chart our journey 
for the future. Annuall^^ we return here 
to strew these graves with flowers, and to 
consider the deeds done here in the flesh, 
and to ponder in our hearts the messages 
voiced from this field of ten thousand 
memories. Here we yield ourselves to rem- 
iniscence of events long passed and con- 



6 

template with satisfaction this monu- 
mental field, conscious that a monument 
more enduring* than those which meet the 
eye, not built Avlth hands, has been 
erected, eternal in the heaven of human 
g-ratitude and love. 

We are the heirs of all that was here 
wrought. We have come by the inexora- 
ble law of succession into a mighty herit- 
age. As ^Ye have received so also must we 
in our turn bestow. The trust is vast and 
sacred. Our responsibilities are co-exten- 
sive with the trust. To-day we may well 
search our hearts and search the inter- 
vening years and contemplate the future 
that confronts us, and ask ourselves if we 
have kept the faith. 

The battle of Gettysburg was one of the 
g-reat battlefields of history, notable for 
the number of men engaged, the long list 
of the dead and ^vounded, the illustrious 
names of the leaders on both sides, the 
distinguished bravery of the combatants, 



T 

and above all, for the mig-lity Issues wMch. 
Tvere here Involved; the integ-rity of a na- 
tion and the emancipation of a race. 
Here the tide of rebellion reached its 
hig'hest flood. Here T^^as recorded the de- 
cisive verdict of the God of Battles, estab- 
lishing* manhood as the basis and liberty 
as the universal condition of citizenship. 
Here the blood of brethren in grray min- 
g-led with the blood of brethren in blue 
that the sins of the fathers mig-ht be ex- 
piated, and the Tvelfare and unity of the 
children be g'uaranteed and consecrated. 
Here Tve Tvere taught once more the fatal 
certainty of the truth of the words of 
the Holy Writ: "Be not deceived, God is 
not mocked, for T^hatsoever a man soTveth 
that shall he also reap." Here was sealed 
in blood and tears the compact of an in- 
dissoluble union; here throbbed the heart 
of the nation in the agonies of T\^ar, and 
here throbs the heart of a nation in the 
grateful remembrances of peace; and here 



8 

are buried the hostages by which we are 
pledged In the words of the Immortal 
Lincoln to the high resolve that govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, and for 
the people shall not perish from the 
earth. 

In the long years w^hich preceded actual 
Tvarfare the resources of debate and leg- 
islative compromise had been exhausted. 
The irreconcilable forces of union and 
disunion, of liberty and slavery could not 
be compromised; they could not live to- 
gether side by side. One or the other 
must surrender. When this truth finally 
made itself manifest, Tvhen all other re- 
sources had failed there came at last the 
inevitable call to arms, the age-long court 
of last resort, a cruel and a savage court. 
Some day, pray God, Ave shall learn a bet- 
ter way. Some day the principles of jus- 
tice and of truth Tvill be established in 
reason and adjusted in a spirit of sanity 
and love, and there is great comfort in 



9 

the thought that the people of the United 
States will never ag^ain find it necessary 
to adjust their own differences by the 
sword. When the fatal g^un was fired at 
Sumpter the response was quick and 
fierce. As God gave each side to see the 
light so each side followed the call, and 
these conflicting ideas of union and dis- 
luiion, freedom and slavery in the forms 
of men in the bodies of our fathers and 
our family kin rushed into the maelstrom 
of a devastating war. From North and 
East and South and West came the hur- 
rying multitudes. They came from shop 
and field, from factory and counting 
house, from all callings and all profes- 
sions, men of one blood, men of one God, 
men of one country, men of one speech, 
leaving behind them the comforts and se- 
curities of home, led by no hope of per- 
sonal advantage, moA^ed by no expectation 
of selfish reward, but inspired, each man, 
by a belief in the righteousness of his own 



10 

cause, determined to do and die, if need 
be, that the truth as he understood it 
niigiit be established. 

In that contest, as so often in the his- 
tory of wars, those ideas which made for 
the widening of human opportunity^ 
which made for the establishment of hu- 
man equality and freedom, which made 
for an equal chance for each man to ex- 
pand manward and Godward, each one 
after his own inherent powers or latent 
capacity, Avere triumphant OAcr the con- 
quered forces of privileg'e and disunion. 

The history of man has been but the 
history of conflicting* ideas and ideals 
strug-gling* against each other in the forms 
of men, throwing man against man, tribe 
against tribe, nation against nation, and 
race against race, building up new philos- 
ophies, tearing down old forms, creating 
new religions, destroying old ones, wear- 
ing away old civilizations and building up 
new ones, and in the process winnowing 



11 
out hlg-her ideals, truer ideas; making for 

richer opportunities for individual men. 
In the long vie^^ right forever triumph- 
ant; in the short view wrong forever on 
the throne, but never at any time any ad- 
vance forward or upward save at the ex- 
penditure of enormous exertion and sacri- 
fice and suffering and death. 

There has never been any primrose path 
to victory; there has never been any pain- 
less conquest of great advance of univer- 
sal benefit. The precious plants of liberty 
have been \iatered by the tears and 
nourished by the blood of countless gen- 
erations. No great freedom has ever been 
established by spontaneous groT^th, nor 
has it ever been self-sustaining or self- 
protecting. Liberties are rare plants de- 
manding eternal vigilance and continuous 
defence. No great expansion of human 
opportunity has ever come to pass by ac- 
cident. Sometime, somehow, somcAvhere, 
some man has paid the price. This is the 



12 

inexorable and uncliang'ing' law. The ad- 
vance of truth across the world has been 
marked by little circles of blackened 
earth where yesterday the martyr stood. 
Mankind has been consecrated from the 
beg-inning" to emancipation, to liberty, to 
equal opportunity, to a chance for growth 
and development. There has always 
glowed in his bosom an inextinguishable 
spark of divine fire which would not be 
denied. This great struggle here at Get- 
tysburg was but one of a thousand similar 
struggles to the same end, but Gettysburg 
was decisive. The backbone of the rebel- 
lion Tv^as broken-here across these ridges 
and in these fields, and here it was de- 
cided forever that the union though a 
compact was indestructible; that the 
country ^vas a nation and not a confed- 
eracy, that men were men and not chat- 
tels. Gettysburg converted this Govern- 
ment from a great experiment to a great 
certainty. As America had been settled 



18 

throug-h the need and agitation of men 
for equal opportunity for individual ex- 
pression, by the urgency in men for lib- 
erty to grow, by the necessity for men 
that political conditions should respond 
more nearly to the urgings of man's inner 
and spiritual nature; so Gettysburg was 
fought in response to the same necessities 
appearing in a different form. 

It was necessary to make the circle of 
individual freedoms complete. Before 
Gettysburg man had conquered for him- 
self many of the great freedoms which we 
proudly claim as American institutions, 
not that they are not found elsewhere, 
but because nowhere else in all the world 
are they so complete. Before Gettysburg 
was fought our citizens had enjoyed free- 
dom of education, freedom of expression 
by thought and word and pen and press, 
freedom to worship God each after the 
dictates of his own conscience. And here 
at Gettysburg the circle was made com- 



14 

plete. Once and for all labor Tvas emanci- 
pated from the shame of slavery, and for 
the first time man was free in head and 
heart and hand, and in all this land for- 
ever and forever more the only stripes 
shall be the stripes upon our flag*. 

The men Ti'^hose deeds ^e commemorate 
here to-day foug-ht unselfishly, they foug-ht 
for no increase of Tvealth or extension of 
dominion, for no personal advantage or 
individual gain, but for their country and 
their Constitution. They fought not so 
much for their rights as for their duties, 
not so much for themselves as for others. 
Their cause was the increasing cause of 
all the ages that have gone before, and 
the imperative need of all the genera- 
tions that were yet to come. Their conse- 
cration to their cause led them to sacri- 
fice, to battle and to death. Not every 
great cause leads to battle and to death. 
Only a few" are called upon to die for 
their country, but all of us are called 



15 

upon to live for our country. These men 
taug^lit us how to live as well as how to 
die. Heroism is not confined to the tented 
field. Courage is not required exclusively 
for Avar and death. To die nobly is he- 
roic. To live nobly is mag-niflcent. The 
one demands instant courage, the other 
unfaltering devotion. 

The welfare of our country depends 
upon the courage and the spirit in which 
we meet and discharge the ever-recur- 
ring, homely duties of every-day life. 
The triumph of right over wrong, of lib- 
erty over slavery, was not completed by 
the victorious outcome of the rebellion. 
The war between the forces of light and 
the forces of darkness is a continuous and 
never-ending Avar. E^ery day is its OAvn 
Gettysburg, and every man a soldier. 
Every day opposing forces meet on the 
great battlefields of life. Every day in 
every human enterprise a victory must be 
lost or Avon. The arms of peace never can 



16 

be laid aside. The past has pledg'ed us to 
tlie future. That which our fathers be- 
g-an we uiust continue. Finished it never 
will be until man's destiny is complete. 

Each new freedom develops new foes, 
each new liberty is threatened by some 
new license. In an ever-g"roTving^ country 
with eA^er-changring* conditions there is a 
continuing field for the display of the 
loftiest virtues and the highest gifts. The 
obligations of citizenship may change in 
kind but ncA er change in quality. To-day 
may require the soldier, tomorroAV may 
require the priest, the next day the states- 
man, but every day requires courage, 
resolution, unselfishness and a willingness 
justly to serve the common good. Whether 
we are willing or unwilling each must 
lend a hand, each must either help or 
hinder, we cannot be eliminated. The re- 
sponsibility is not to be denied, the obli- 
gation is not to be evaded. As civic privi- 
leges are common to all, so civic duties 



17 

are comnion to all. They are not and 
oug'lit not to be transferable. No man lias 
any rlj^lit to share the peace and security 
of org-anized society nnless he devotes his 
share of effoi't to\^ ard securing^ that peace 
and maintaining- that secnrity. Civic du- 
ties are not assignable any more than are 
civic privileg-es. The deadliest foes of the 
permanence of our institutions are civic 
indifference and civic apathy, the one is 
a treason and the other is a crime. Uni- 
versal individual interest in and ag-gres- 
sive participation in public affairs is the 
price we must pay for present ivelfare 
and future prosperity. It is suicidal folly 
to look to some exceptional man, no mat- 
ter how hig-hly g-ifted he may be, to see 
to it that the republic suffers no harm. 
That Tvay lies dictatorship. Just in pro- 
portion as each citizen meets this duty of 
interest in public affairs will the stability 
of our institutions be assured. It has cost 
the effort of ages to secure the rig-ht to 



18 

each citizen for an equal voice at the bal- 
lot box. This rig-ht must be exercised 
that it may produce its finest fruits. 
There are more g'ood men than bad men 
in every community, but inert men no 
matter how lofty their private virtues are 
of no public utility. Common honesty de- 
mands a common exertion for the com- 
mon good. No conception of public duty 
is complete ^vhich either belittles or ig*- 
nores this oblig'ation. The hig'hest civic 
duty of every American citizen is to be a 
pi'actical American politician T\ith an un- 
dying interest in and an unflag'g'ing' par- 
ticipation in all public affairs Tvith an un- 
waAcring" devotion to the principles of a 
square deal and fair play. Each public 
duty shirked adds just so much to the 
burden of the faithful. The needs and the 
benefits of g-ood g-overninent are univer- 
sal. We may have just as good g^overn- 
ment as we T^^ill to have. We must move 
forward like an army with banners, each 



19 

man in his own place faithful to his own 
duties in his own way according^ to his 
streng-th. 

This great Government of ours of which 
we are all so proud is in many ways the 
most complicated in its forms and organ- 
isms. It is not a pure democracy, and 
could not endure long as such, and ten- 
dencies in that direction should be viewed 
with a most hostile eye. It is a republic 
of the representative form wherein each 
man has an equal right with every other 
man to an equal voice in governmental 
affairs. It was inevitable that our insti- 
tutions should take this particular polit- 
ical form because it affords the best 
chance for individual growth, and re- 
quires the highest qualities of individual 
citizenship, and under it human liberty 
would find itself the most at home. Here 
the responsibility is upon all alike. The 
expressed will of the majority properly 
ascertained in the various civic divisions 



20 

is the supreme la^v of tlie land and the 
foundation of all authority. It is estab- 
lished by the experience of the centuries 
that the opinion of all of the people is a 
strong-er foundation for justice than the 
opinion of some of the people. Here the 
ag'g'reg'ate g-ood of all is determined by 
the aggreg-ate will of all, and in the exer- 
cise and expression of that Tvill each man 
has his equal chance. Equal poAver im- 
plies equal responsibilities, and equal re- 
sponsibilities necessitate equal prepara- 
tion. To each American comes Avith an 
urgency unknown elsewhere in the Tvorld 
the need of the cultivation of the highest 
conception of civic duty and patriotism. 
We cannot forever be receiving from so- 
ciety all its various forms of assistance 
and protection and never give back any 
contribution of our own. No man has any 
right to demand any better government 
than he himself is willing to contribute 
to effect. It is this unescapable personal 



21 

responsibility which must be faced and 
accepted by CA^ery American citizen. Just 
so far as Tve are ivilling^ to pay this price 
just that near shall we come to being* a 
nation rejoicing* in equal opportunity to 
all founded in choice and established in 
justice. 

We commemorate here to-day not alone 
the death of the men who fell here for 
liberty; other men have died before. We 
celebrate not alone their bravery; other 
battles were as bravely won. We extol 
not simply the virtues and the results of 
the bravery of the heroic dead, but con- 
sciously associate them with the grandeur 
and nobility of the cause. We celebrate 
here to-day the spirit of Gettysburg, the 
spirit of unselfish service, the spirit of 
fidelity even unto death. We celebrate 
here devotion to the cause of humanity, 
determination which against all odds, set- 
ting self aside, sacrifices self that others 
may live. The spirit of Gettysburg is the 



22 

spirit of tlie square deal and fair play, 
the spirit wliicli resolA es to do no wron^ 
and to suffer none, tlie spirit which puts 
self last and duty first. This is the lesson 
spoken from these Aoiceless graves. We 
are here reminded that no man lives to 
himself alone, but each for all. Some 
must suffer that others may enjoy. Some 
must sow that others may reap. The man 
who lives unto himself alone has only one 
soul's welfare for his incentive, the man 
who lives to serve others has for his 
beneficiaries all mankind. The lesson of 
Gettysburg in a word is service, the no- 
blest word in the English language de- 
scribing the noblest thing in human life, 
breathing the humblest and yet the lofti- 
est spirit; entering into all good works 
and true living; inspiring all the lives of 
all the greatest men and women of all 
times; adorning the crowns of monarchs 
and lifting the humblest above kings. It 
sweetens the toil of the laborer and justi- 



23 

fles the accumulations of the wealthy. It 
constitutes the sole foundation of endur- 
ing^ g^reatness, for g^reatness implies serv- 
ice, and service implies unselfishness. It 
is all wrong^ to think that greatness comes 
from making the world serve us. All 
genuine greatness is based upon service 
to the world. The quality of greatness is 
derived from the quality of the services 
rendered. This is the master secret of the 
ages. It is the essence of the golden rule. 
It is the law and the prophets. Already 
there are evidences that the world is 
coming under the dominion of this law. 
We are certainly coming into a new age. 
Whether consciously or unconsciously, di- 
rectly or indirectly, we shall acknowledge 
more and more the binding force and ex- 
perience the marvellous efficiency of this 
law of service. No longer should the 
youth of America be taught to develop all 
their capacities in order to be great, or 
to be rich, or to succeed. No longer 



should the keynote of the appeal to the 
coming" generations be selfishness. It is 
right that youth should develop every 
manly grace. It Is right that youth 
should cultlA^ate every intellectual capac- 
ity. It is right that youth should seek to 
grow to its uttermost, but the inspiring 
incentive should be not expectation of 
selfish rewards, but the hope of the 
largest capacity for rendering service to 
others. The solution of all great political 
and social national problems depends upon 
national character, and national charac- 
ter is but the aggregate of personal char- 
acter. Where the keynote of individual 
inspiration is selfishness, the national 
character will be selfish. Where the in- 
dividual keynote is altruism, the national 
character will be pitched to the harmony 
of the music that thrilled above Bethle- 
hem, the sweet music of "Peace on earth, 
good will to men." So the solution of all 
g^reat problems in the last analysis is to 



25 

be found in the bosom of the Individual. 
The choicest asset of a nation is the aver- 
ag^e character of its citizens. Spencer has 
well said there has never yet been found 
any political alchemy whereby we can get 
golden results from leaden instincts. 

There has been too much talli of rights 
and too little thought of duty. From the 
cradle to the grave we have shouted for 
our rights, but as to our duties we have 
talked in whispers. There is no right 
without a corresponding duty. There is 
no privilege without a corresponding obli- 
gation. They are correlative, they go 
hand in hand, they are the two sides of 
the same shield. Appreciation of and sub- 
mission to the rights of others is not to 
be considered a surrender of individual- 
ity. It is a practice of the golden rule. 
Society must move to accomplish great 
results as a unit, and this can only be ac- 
complished through the co-ordination of 
individual units. The higher the quality 



of tlie individual, the more effective tlie 
co-ordination. The thinking* unit in civil 
life, as the thinliing" bayonet in military 
life, obtains the best results by intelligent 
submission to the expressed T\^ill of a 
properly constituted majority for a com- 
mon purpose. 

This is a marvellous age in which we 
live. Society is quiA^ering with expanding 
life, problems of gravest moment as to the 
proper creation and distribution of wealth, 
as to the proper relations betT\^een capital 
and labor, between employer and em- 
ployee, between public and private corpo- 
rations and civil communities, as to the 
proper care of the socially inefficient, con- 
front us at every turn. The world is in a 
ferment, mighty armaments are being* 
constructed. Vast armies are being gath- 
ered together, nations are shivering with 
apprehension of mighty upheavals, ex- 
ternal and internal. There are prophesies 
of weird wonders in the political and in- 



87 

dnstrial skies, and there are arising^ In all 
lands stran^^e prophets shouting* lo here 
is the solution, and lo there is the solu- 
tion, and terrifying us with lurid fore- 
casts of swift destruction and universal 
disaster. A distinguished clergyman the 
other day in a sermon before a large and 
cultivated audience asserted that the life 
of our nation t% as in peril through money 
madness, and that vice threatened our 
destruction, and he painted an alarming 
picture of the imminence of the dissolu- 
tion of our institutions, but money mad- 
ness is only one form of danger and this 
has always existed, but never so little 
dangerous as now. Money madness, 
poT^er madness, ambition madness and 
luxury madness and many other forms of 
excessive zeal have always threatened so- 
ciety, but somehow^ the world has moved 
onw ard and society in general has moved 
upward. It is a false and superficial vie^^ 
that sees only the intense activity of 



modern forms of evil and is blind to the 
unprecedented activity and aggressive- 
ness of tlie forms of good. Let us not be 
alarmed. Let us not be discouraged. Let 
us turn a deaf ear to all false prophets 
preaching neiv doctrines. We need no 
new moral codes. W need only old-fash- 
ioned morals for new-fashioned times: 
We need only the lesson taught here at 
Gettysburg, fidelity to duty, a touch from 
the hand of unselfish love, a voice from 
the graves of the nameless dead. Denun- 
ciation of the errors of others is a w^aste 
of time. Uncreative criticism is a loss of 
strength. 

Great things against great obstacles 
have been accomplished in this land; 
greater things remain and greater obsta- 
cles Tvill be removed. Man's destiny is to 
reach out forever Tvith increasing insist- 
ence toward the ever-approaching, ever- 
receding perfection of human opportunity. 
There will be forever an ideal beyond the 



29 

actual. This is the condition and the sign 
of g^rowth. There must and should be a 
noble discontent; there must and should 
be enlig-htened selfishness. This is and 
always will be the mainsprings of enlig^ht- 
ened action. Perfection is a dream, but the 
dream prophesies the fact. The golden 
age is not behind us, it is before us. This 
is a better world to live in to-day than it 
Tvas when Gettysburg Tvas fought, and it 
T^ ill continue to improve, never doubt it. 
To think otherwise is to regard all his- 
tory as a fable and God as a myth. The 
world's life read day by day in the col- 
umns of the daily press seems to justify 
the belief that hysteria, unrest, unreason, 
unfaith, immorality and crime are in the 
ascendent, but the world's life read by 
decades and centuries so that we can get 
a truer perspective of the real trend of 
the mountain chains of human achieve- 
ment irradiates hope and is beautiful 
with promise. Troubles there are, and 



30 

troubles there always will be. Difficulties 
there are and g-rave dang'ers and there 
alAvays will be, but faced with calm self- 
poise and the spirit of fair play, met with 
unselfish eourag^e and a devotion to the 
common g^ood they will be smoothed out 
and disappear. Each heeded noble im- 
pulse helps us f or Avar d, each temptation 
resisted, each injustice repressed, each 
Tvrong" righted, each equity established, 
helps us on the way. We are soldiers bat- 
tling* for the truth's sake. Sometimes we 
have our vShiloh and Bull Run, but more 
frequently our Gettysburg and Appomat- 
tox. Sometimes the sweat and dust and 
noise of conflict blind and deafen us and 
the darkness of night overtakes us, some- 
times we feel faint and discouraged, and 
sometimes fall out by the Tvayside and 
are reported absent or not accounted for; 
sometimes we desert and betray, but the 
great army of America is brave and 
strong and true, sound of body, clear of 



31 

sense and sweet of heart, and answers 
promptly and victoriously to the com- 
mand of conscience for fair play and 
equal opportunity. 

Never was charity kinder, never was 
conscience moi*e dominant, never was jus- 
tice surer, never was appreciation of truth 
and g^ood morals and rig^ht living* higher, 
never Avere loftier standards required of 
men in all positions of private business or 
public trust, never Avas opportunity for 
all men freer, nor more equal than to-day, 
here, now, in this country, g-overned by 
the sons of those men who here at Get- 
tysburg* were faithful unto death. They 
purchased free g'overnment by their 
deaths, Ave secvire good gOA ernment by our 
liA^es. They A\on their victories by the 
SAAord, AAC must aa in our victories by the 
Word. The g-ood Avork has g-one forAvard, 
the messag'e from these g'raACs has been 
heeded year by year. 

Each new victory entails new opportu- 



32 

nities and new obligations. Higlier citi- 
zenship demands a higlier consecration. 
The methods, the needs, the aims of the 
twentieth century are not to be realized 
by stagnant content with nineteenth cen- 
tury conditions. The gathering momen- 
tum of the forces of to-day is not to be 
controlled by the slender restraints of 
yesterday. Twentieth century conditions 
require twentieth century men with 
twentieth century preparation. 

"New occasions teach new duties, 
Time makes ancient good uncouth; 

He must upward still and onward. 
Who Tvould keep abreast with truth." 

New methods are not necessarily better 
because they are new. Old methods are 
not necessarily worse because they are 
old. Every change is not reform. Every 
departure is not into better ways. Every 
new proposal should be put to the trial of 
the test tube and the hammer and judged 



33 

by the results in tlie lig-lit of the immuta- 
ble laws of equity and justice. 
We must believe with Tennyson: 

"That through the ag^es one enduring 

purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened 
In the process of the suns." 

We are too near some events fully to 
measure their deep significance, and no 
doubt the future will correct many false 
impressions we now have of ourselves, our 
country and our work, but of this we may 
be sure, that when in their turn our chil- 
dren and their children in some distant 
time stand as we are standing by the 
graves of those who are making the 
America of to-day, they will say of us as 
we are saying of these: 

"They were faithful to their trust. 

They fought a good fight. 

They kept the faith." 

"They added to liberty." "They increased 
opportvmity." "They advanced justice." 
"They served mankind." 



34 

Humanity passes but the humanities re- 
main a heritag"e of increasing" A^alue from 
ag-e to age. Each generation adds its con- 
tribution and thus we are forever at the 
crest of the wave of the fulness of human 
achievements. 

To these sleeping heroes we are much 
indebted. To them our children also shall 
be much indebted if we are faithful to our 
trust. There need be no fear of the 
mighty engines of modern life if the same 
spirit which invented them and applied 
them is devoted to their regulation and 
conti'ol. There need be no fear for the 
life of our republic for our institutions 
Avill endure so long as love of justice en- 
dures as a stronger force than indiffer- 
ence to justice; so long as a passion for 
freedom and equality of opportunity shall 
be stronger than greed for privilege and 
selfish advantage. So long as each citizen 
for himself with firm resolve can say in 
the words of that noble hymn: 



85 

"I live to greet that season 

By g-ifted men foretold, 
When man shall live by reason, 

And not alone by g-old. 
When man to man united, 

And every wrong- thing" rig-hted, 
Thise Tvhole world shall be lighted. 

As Eden was of old. 

I live for those who love me. 

For those who know me true; 
For the Heaven that shines above me. 

And awaits my coming", too. 
For every cause that lacks assistance. 

For every wrong* that need resist- 
ance, 
For the future In the distance. 

And the g^ood that I can do." 

And as we bid these heroes ag-ain our 
annual hail and fare^vell, we renew^ with 
the g-reat President the high resolve that 
throug-h no fault of ours shall those who 
died here have died in vain. 



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